From the Ashes Ending A
by StrydeVex
Summary: This is a re-publishing of my story From The Ashes. People were struggling or irritated by the branching storylines, so this is an attempt to clear that up and put each story in its own publication. Please ignore the now authors note, as the story will not be edited again. Please enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**So I decided after getting some feedback that I'm going to write this story! I want to apologize again for the misconceptions about this story, I don't mean for this to be a dark story, it's just starting out that way, I promise it will get better.**

**WARNING: If you get depressed easily, or are in a sad mood, I don't suggest you read this story until I get several chapters in. The beginning that I have planned isn't happy, and the story won't start to get happy for a few chapters**

**Well, I hope you all enjoy my first Fan Fictions **_**From the Ashes**_**, please review and let me know what you think about the story, character building, grammar and such. If you have any suggestions, let me know!**

Percy been dating Annabeth for nearly a year now and it had been the best of his life! He had spent the day alone in his cabin thinking about all the adventures he and Annabeth had been through together, and how they had come to be the couple that they were. While he was laying on his bed pondering, he caught a glint of light off the wall and looked at the shield-watch that Tyson had made for him. He remembered all they had gone through on their adventures and mishaps they had when they traveled though the Sea of Monsters to save Grover and find the Golden Fleece. He couldn't help but smile when he remembered Annabeth saving him from a future as a Guiney Pig on Circe's Island.

They had been through so much together and he wanted to do something special for their one-year anniversary, and he had been thinking about what he should do for days.

It was time for Percy to start his usual activities. He got up and decided to try practice sword fighting in the arena with the Athena cabin to try to clear his mind, and apart from the Ares cabin (who hated his guts) they were probably the cabin that was the most difficult to fight against.

When he got there, he found that the one person who he was excited to see wasn't there. "Where's Annabeth?" he asked Malcolm, but he didn't seem to know either. Percy shrugged it off, deciding she was probably on her own researching more about architecture.

As the day went on, he realized that he hadn't seen Annabeth anywhere. He checked her cabin and found that she wasn't there either. She must've gone off on her own for some reason. He decided it would be best not to go searching for her if she wanted to be alone. As Percy went back into his cabin, he laid down on his bed to think. He stayed there through dinner because he wasn't hungry and he needed to think of something to do for his anniversary. After a few hours his mind was wandering, thinking about everything he had ever done with Annabeth, his mom, his friends, really any adventure or trip he had ever taken. Then it hit him. He could ask her to come to Montauk with him! He had never been there with anyone but his mother, and technically Grover was there for a few minutes (long story) but that doesn't count. He decided that he could ask her to take a trip to Montauk for a few days for their anniversary and show her everything he had loved about the place even though he hadn't been there in years.

In a way, Percy thought of this as a way to share a piece of his heart. He loved going to Montauk with his mom, and hoped that Annabeth would see what it meant to him to share a piece of himself with her that had been for only him for so long. As he drifted off to sleep he was grinning, unable to stop thinking about all the adventures he had had there before, and hoping he could relive them with Annabeth. Now, all he had to do was think of a way to tell her. . .

**Well, that's chapter one! If you have any suggestions, criticism (constructive only please), or ideas for me to use, let me know! And since I'm new, if you have any ideas on how I can transition the story a bit more smoothly, tell me. I obviously need a bit of work on that. I'm hoping to make future chapters longer, but I won't be filling them with random things just to take space. Thank you all for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**I'm back already! Because of the short chapters and the fact that I want to get into the deeper part of the story, I want to get a few chapters out relatively quickly. I'm hoping that with reviews and practice I'll be able to do a better job of writing these stories, for your enjoyment as well as mine. I'll also try to do a better job of using line breaks to keep the story in pieces instead of long paragraphs. This will also probably be a relatively short chapter because it's just Percy trying to get an idea of how to ask Annabeth, and if I have the time and motivation I may add one more chapter later tonight**

Percy's POV

I'd been awake for a while now, but I just couldn't force myself out of bed. I laid there with my hands twitching from between my chest to my sides to anything they could do to let my nervous energy out, and my ADHD wasn't helping. I still hadn't been able to think of a way to ask Annabeth and I'd been laying here thinking about it for hours.

After a little longer I decided that it wasn't like we were a new couple, I would just ask her, but that didn't stop me from at least making sure it was while we were alone somewhere that we could talk, just the two of us.

I left the cabin and started looking around for my friends or Annabeth, but I still had no idea where they were. It was nearly time for breakfast so I figured I would see them soon anyways. I went into the forest alone so I could sit by the water and just be alone for a while as I try to think of a place that I could ask her to go with me.

Soon after I sat there, I heard the horn signaling breakfast so I got up and started walking. I made the decision to ask Annabeth by the stream in the forest, because people rarely went there and I knew it would give us some time alone and I would be able to talk with her without interruption.

When I got to breakfast, I saw Annabeth eating with her siblings, but she looked kind of out of it today. I wonder if she had a bad night? Maybe dreams, they were pretty common among demigods. I got my food and ate alone at the Poseidon table like I usually did, and I was about to stand up when Grover came and sat by me.

"Hey Percy." He said.

"Where have you been for the last few days, I haven't seen you around?" I replied.

He answered "You know, just around. I've been spending a lot of time with Juniper lately because I haven't seen her for a while."

We kept talking for a little while, but mentioning his girlfriend made it difficult to get my mind off of Annabeth.

By the time he stood up to leave I looked at the Athena table and saw that Annabeth was already gone.

"That's odd," I mumbled to myself, "she usually at least comes to tell me good morning."

I wanted to go find her but I had to go to archery. I didn't see the purpose, I was a terrible shot and I knew I wasn't improving. I decided that I would find Annabeth later and get her to come talk to me, and maybe figure out the reason she was acting so strangely for the last few days.

After I finished training in archery, sword fighting (which I actually was pretty good at), climbing the lava while and Pegasus riding, I went to my cabin and took a shower. I changed into some nicer clothes. I wore my regular jeans but also a button-up dress shirt because I figured it was kind of a special occasion and I wanted to look nice for Annabeth when I asked her.

I found her on her way to her cabin and I quickly stopped her.

"Annabeth, can I need to ask you something." I said, but she wouldn't make eye contact with me for more than a second, looking at the ground or her hands.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I want us to be alone to ask you, I don't want anyone interrupting."

She started to say something but stopped herself.

"Ok, where are we going?" She asked.

"Just follow me."

I lead her through the woods and to the creek where I figured nobody would overhear us so we had some privacy.

"Annabeth, our one year anniversary is in a few weeks and I want to ask you if you would go on a trip to Montauk with me, just the two of us." I said.

She was staring at the creek and said "I don't know Percy, I need to think about it."

I wasn't really expecting that, so we sat quietly for a few minutes until we heard the horn for dinner. She got up and started to walk away, but I grabbed her hand and quickly asked "Annabeth, are you alright? You've been acting kind of acting strange for the last few days."

She quickly replied as she pulled her hand away "I'm fine," and she walked towards the pavilion.

What had I done wrong? Did I say something?

I sat there alone for a while until I decided that I wasn't hungry and started going back to my cabin where I could be alone for a while.

I got there and didn't even bother taking off my clothes before laying down on my bed.

My last thought before I fell asleep was "What did I do wrong?"

**And that's chapter two! I hope all of you enjoyed reading this, even though it had the crime against humanity that is my attempt at dialogue in it. Hopefully I'll put out another chapter later tonight. Please review and tell me any ideas or tips to help me continue writing this story!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**Hey guys and thanks for all the support I've been getting! I want to give a shout-out to everyone who has reviewed or sent me a message so far, thanks to ****percy81511, ****Bloodsteel 45, ****HTTYD-PJATO-ROTG-41185****, I Need To Change My Name, and daughtersoftheowl, you've all given me support in writing my first story that I hope people are and will enjoy. Thank you to all of you, and all of you who just read my stories too, it always makes me smile when I look at the stats on my story and see how many people have read it. Thank you all.**

**Enough of that though, I know the real reason you're reading this, the story. So without any more delay, R&R and here is chapter 3 of my story!**

Percy's POV

I woke up after a night of barely any sleep. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, trying to get myself to wake up.

I walked over to the fountain in the back of my cabin and dunked my head under the water in the salt-water spring.

Immediately I felt more awake and I decided to get ready for the day. Since I had gone to sleep in the same clothes as yesterday, so I showered and changed into a new pair of jeans and a new Camp shirt.

Everything seemed to be good until I remembered why I couldn't sleep last night.

Annabeth…

I couldn't stop thinking that I'd done or said something that had made her not want to be around me, but after racking my brain for a few minutes I couldn't think of anything I had done.

I decided it would be best if I left her alone for a while, since she was obviously in no mood to talk to me.

I went to breakfast and found that everything was the same as it usually was, everybody was sitting with their cabins eating breakfast together. Annabeth was with her cabin, and I saw her glance at me but she looked away. I needed to find out what was wrong.

I got my breakfast, blue pancakes and eggs, and muttered "help me dad," while I scraped an offering into the fire. I walked over to my table and sat down alone and started to eat.

Nothing eventful happened so I just went to my activities after I finished eating my food.

The rest of the day went as they usually do, nothing bad happened, no monsters were seen (except the usual ones in the forest, but that's beside the point), and everything was normal. And I hated it.

None of my friends were around or they were busy so I was alone the whole day because I usually spent it with Annabeth. Jason and Piper were always together and Leo usually hung out around them, nobody has seen Nico for a couple weeks, Frank and Hazel were at Camp Jupiter, and Annabeth wasn't talking to me.

I felt more alone that I had at Camp for a long time, and I didn't know why.

Everyone ate dinner and after the Campfire we all went to our cabins for the night.

I fell asleep to a sleep that was better than yesterday, but completely dreamless.

The whole next day went the same as the one before, activities, meals, the campfire, all of it. I never realized how few close friends I had at Camp until Annabeth stopped talking to me.

For the second night in a row, I went to sleep and saw nothing again until morning.

I woke up and immediately decided that I was sick of this and I needed to confront Annabeth about what was going and whether she was going to go with me to Montauk.

After the morning's activities I found her walking back towards her cabin with some of her siblings and she was turned away from me talking to her brother Malcolm.

I had to jog to catch up to them, and I grabbed Annabeth's shoulder, turned her around and immediately said "We need to talk." She didn't really reply, she just waved Malcolm on to go with their siblings back to the cabin and waited until they were out of earshot.

Once they were gone she looked at me with a blank expression and asked "What is it?"

I was surprised by how monotone her voice was, as if she either had no emotions or was hiding them from me, which I wasn't used to, at least not from her.

I answered "You never gave me an answer and you haven't even talked to me for several days, and I want to know what's wrong."

She started to reply but I cut her off and said "I want to be alone with you while we talk about this."

She nodded and I lead her down to the canoe lake. We sat down on the docks and I looked over at her and asked "So what's going on lately? You haven't talked to me in two days and you've hardly even looked at me."

She looked out over the lake, thinking, but she didn't answer.

"You never told what you meant about our trip to Montauk either, and I need to know Annabeth," I said, getting a little irritated after her ignoring me for two days. "Our anniversary is in two weeks."

When I mentioned our anniversary she looked away from the lake and away from me

"I can't go to Montauk with you Percy." She said.

I quickly replied "Why not? What did I do that's making you so upset? I always try not to be rude, I try to treat you like you're the best thing that's happened to me, and I don't understa—"

She cut me off saying "Percy, it isn't anything you did."

I looked at her confused "What is it then?"

She looked at me with a sad, slightly guilty look in her eyes "I… I found someone else Percy, and I want to be with him."

**And that's it! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, even if I did leave it at a little bit of a cliffhanger. I hope you're all enjoying my story so far, but the next chapter is where it gets a bit dark. Please don't stop reading because of that, it will lighten up, the next chapter is just where I'm planning on starting some more character building and starting to go into the feelings of the characters. So Thank you everyone who has made this far! You're all amazing and I hope you've enjoyed. Please review or PM me if you have any suggestions for what I should do with this story, but keep in mind I have the whole plot written down already, so I can twist things, but I almost certainly won't change the whole story because of a suggestion, even if it's a great one. That was chapter 3, and I hope to see you guys in the next one!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**Hello everyone, how did you cope with being down for several hours? I've only know about this site for a few days and I feel like I'm going through withdrawal and I'm bored of waiting and checking so I've decided to start writing chapter 4. I hope you all enjoy it!**

**A heads up for all of you, this is where the story gets really dark. I'm just giving a warning because I don't want someone to read this chapter and have nothing after it to see what happens because it gets pretty depressing.**

**I hope you can all push through this chapter for the story, thank you to all of you giving me support and reading my story, this has been a really fun experience for me to write my own story!**

**Last thing, I was reading through my old chapters and noticed several grammar and spelling errors, and I'm sorry. Several people have been wanting me to update quickly so I didn't proofread as thoroughly as I should have, I'll try to do better about that.**

**And now, without any more delays, Chapter 4**

Percy's POV

I was speechless.

My brain seemed to shut down and I wasn't able to think for a few seconds. When thoughts returned to my head they were a jumbled, undiscernible mess. I couldn't look at Annabeth, and I stared at the lake below my feet.

How had this happened to me? Where had we gone wrong?

These thoughts were swimming through my mind as my reality seemed to collapse on itself.

I jumped into the lake.

As I broke through the surface of the water I heard Annabeth call my name, but I ignored her. I wasn't in any state for reasoning and I didn't want to see anybody so I sank to the bottom of the lake and stayed there, trying to comprehend what had happened to me.

I had done everything for her, I had left camp and followed a quest to rescue her, given up eternity with Calypso for her; I even gave up immortality among the gods to be with her.

And she took what I gave and stabbed me in heart.

I could barely stand it, I wanted to cry, yell, scream, anything to get the emotions I was feeling to leave, but I couldn't, all I could do was sit at the bottom of the lake with my head in my hands. I felt like a piece of my heart… no, my soul had been ripped from me.

The one person I'd ever loved enough to give anything for had replaced me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I was at the bottom of the lake for hours. I could sense fish curiously swimming around me, and occasionally a naiad wondering what was wrong, and what happened to the Son of the Sea God.

I acknowledged none of them.

Eventually I passed out on the floor of the lake for a restless night of sleep.

I'd like to say that a night of sleep had helped my emotions, but if anything it had made them worse.

I couldn't shake the feeling that I was alone and I'd lost the only person I cared for, who I thought had cared for me.

She led me on and betrayed me.

I wanted to feel angry, I could cope with anger, hit something, break something, and then I could make it go away by letting out my anger, but I couldn't get angry. I could only feel sadness and complete lack of joy.

Annabeth had meant everything to me, and I would have given up anything for her, and I did.

I finally forced myself to walk to shore.

When I surfaced there was nobody there, and when I looked at the dock Annabeth was gone. I wasn't surprised, but there was something on the dock. I walked over to it to see it was a necklace I had given her on our six month anniversary.

That was my breaking point.

I picked it up and clenched it in my fist choking back tears. I couldn't keep this up and I knew it. I needed someone to talk to, but there was no one. I needed someone to be there for me, but there wasn't anybody. I was alone.

I went to my cabin and sat on my bed.

I pulled out a notepad that Annabeth had given me a few months ago, insisting that I should start writing down our adventures.

I flipped open the notebook and looked at what was there. I had written everything I could remember, and every detail about it. The first time I arrived at camp, our quest to retrieve Zeus's Master Bolt and save my mom, our quest to save Grover and retrieve the Golden Fleece with Tyson, the quest lead by Zoe to save Artemis that I had snuck on to save Annabeth, Annabeth's quest through the Labyrinth where she had kissed me for the first time and Calypso's Island, and finally the missions and battles to protect Olympus from Kronos. I had even written down the first real date that I had taken Annabeth on because I considered it to be an adventure.

I read these, all of them, and tried to get comfort from the memories, but it only made it worse, forcing me to remember how much I loved Annabeth. I knew no matter what I did I would never forget her.

I can't take the pain, this has to end.

I looked at my nightstand and opened the drawer. Inside I found a knife that I kept there in case of emergencies.

I almost smirked thinking that after this, I wouldn't ever have another emergency, another problem, another pain… or another loved one lost…

I stood in the middle of my cabin and held the point of the knife to my stomach.

I said to myself "I'm sorry everyone, but I can't take this."

Before I could hesitate I plunged the knife into my stomach and fell to my knees.

As I touched the ground my eyes were clouded with pain, but I saw the door open and heard Nico's voice say "Percy, where—" and then he saw me as I fell over onto the floor.

"Oh my gods Percy!" he yelled and kneeled by and pulled out the knife and tried to stop the bleeding. My vision was going darker but I thought I could hear someone crying, it sounded like a girl's voice.

The last thing I saw before I blacked out was a reflection of light off of blonde hair above me…

**That's it for chapter 4, and I'm sorry that this chapter is so dark and depressing. I hope it doesn't make any of you sad seeing this, but I promise it will get happier! Just stick with me on this! Thank you to all my great readers! Please review or PM me if you have any ideas or suggestions and I hope to see you in the next chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**I'm back again guys! I have a campout tonight and then I have work most of the day tomorrow so I want to put out a chapter early today to hold everyone off who's reading it. I might get another chapter out late tomorrow night.**

**I apologize for the dark ending on the last one, but it was important to the story and the plot that I have written out, and I hope you'll stay with me as the story progresses.**

**I've kind of been losing a bit of motivation for this story though, because it seems like it's being abandoned. Only 12 people have read Chapter 4 and I don't know if anyone even wants this story to continue, so please PM me, or leave a review, or something to let me know if you want me to continue writing.**

**And now, without more delay, Chapter 5!**

**Percy's POV**

The first thing I was aware of as I regained consciousness was the feeling of sheets over everything but my face. I was slowly regaining feeling, I realized how tired I was, the parched feeling in my mouth, and of the course the severe ache in my stomach.

My stomach… I remembered my last moments before I had blacked out and what I had done to myself.

The day, the journal… the knife.

I opened my eyes and saw that I was in the infirmary, laying on the bed with a sheet on top of me.

I lifted the sheets and saw a bandage wrapped tightly around my stomach where my wound had been. I looked to my left at the nightstand and saw that there were two glasses, one with nectar, the other with water, and next to them was my journal.

I didn't know why someone had left the journal by me, but I didn't care enough to find out. I looked to my right and saw Nico sitting alone in a chair by the wall several feet away from me, just watching me.

He didn't say a word, he just sat there and waited for me to say something.

I sat, trying to compose my thoughts and think of what to say to him.

"Why did you come to find me?" I asked, monotone without emotion.

"You've were missing the whole night, and besides, I try to take care of my friends."

Friends… It didn't seem that I had any of those, not recently.

"What do you mean the whole night? Don't you mean last night?"

"No, Percy you've been unconscious for two days. I've been helping out with taking care of you, with the fact that I can sense death Chiron thought it would be a good idea for me to be here permanently because I could see if you were alright."

"What do you mean helping? Who else has been here?"

"Chiron was here the first day, Grover came and visited a few times. Jason, Leo, and Piper came and visited too. We sent an Iris message to Frank and Hazel at Camp Jupiter too. And of course, Annabeth has been here nearly non-stop with me, but I figured I should send her away when it seemed that you were waking up. She's waiting outside right now."

When he mentioned Annabeth I looked away and focused on my hands, the walls, anything else. Why was she here? She knew how I felt about her, and I was sure she knew she was the cause of this.

"Why is she here?" I asked him harshly, still not looking at him.

"She feels guilty for what happened. She was miserable with stress that you might die, and she was with me when I found you in your cabin. I could hardly stop her from crying for the first few hours while you were close to dying."

"She doesn't have any reason to cry, or even care about me. She left me, and she knew how much I cared about her."

"Percy, I can't pretend to be an expert on feelings, or even people, but she still feels something for you. She was the one who asked me to help look for you."

I didn't believe it. She didn't have feelings for me, she had made that pretty clear.

"You'll get over this Percy, I know how you're feeling. I felt the same way when I lost Bianca. I felt sadness, depression, anger, and there wasn't a way to let it out. You need to come to terms with yourself and get over it, bottling up your emotions won't help, it'll only make you feel worse. You have to let it go."

I didn't respond to that. There wasn't anything I could say to that.

"Annabeth wants to talk to you Percy, that's why she's waiting outside. She—"

"No." I immediately respond.

"Whether she feels anything for me or not, I don't want to see her, especially not now."

"Percy you're being-"

I cut him off again "Unreasonable? I'm being unreasonable for being angry at the one person I loved for leaving me? For crushing my feelings with no reason that I know except she found someone else?"

"She didn't-"

"No, not now, maybe another time." I said while rolling onto my side facing away from him. "I don't want to see her."

I heard Nico sigh as he stood up and walked out. I had my eyes closed, trying to sleep. I heard someone walk in and come next to me.

The last thing I remember before falling asleep was a gentle touch of someone brushing their hand across my cheek.

**And that's chapter 5! I hope you all enjoyed! Please Review or PM me if you have an idea or suggestion for me to put in my story. Thank you to all of my readers, and I hope to see you in the next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**Shout-out to TheRebelFlesh, he/she (I'm sorry, I don't know which from our conversations) has been helping me a lot by giving me some new ideas and tips that I want to use to improve my story! Also, to a guest, I hope all of you who review will make an account because I really want to respond to your reviews to show I'm listening to all of you, but, you know who you are, and thanks for your support! Lastly, shout-out to ****vicchavez007****, thanks for your support, I'm glad you like my story!**

**I'm back, and I'm really tired. I'm just going to fill you in on my personal life and what's going on really fast. I just went camping last night and probably got about 4 hours of sleep broken up by waking up during the night. Then today I had to go to work for 8 hours, then 2 more hours of overtime and I then had to drive home on slick, icy roads. I also think I have food poisoning! Sleep sounds amazing right now, but I said I would get another chapter out. So if there are grammar or spelling errors, please be understanding, I'm really tired while I'm writing this.**

**Well, enough of my sob story, Chapter 6, I hope you enjoy!**

Percy's POV

It's been three days since I woke up, and I'm nearly well enough to go about regular activities again, at least that's what Chiron and Nico have been telling me.

I've been confined to my bed and haven't been allowed to get out except to go to the bathroom, and Nico stays in my room to make sure I don't get out.

I was suffering from cabin fever, I always felt restless, bored, and depressed.

All I could do to pass the time was talk to Nico, so we talked about everything. We talked about what was going on around camp, I told him about quests I'd been on, and all the details about them that I could remember, and he told me about traveling through the Underworld.

I didn't have anything to hide, so I opened up to Nico. I told him everything I'd been through from as early as I could remember.

Nico told me a lot too. He told me about when he was little, about how he would annoy his Bianca, how he obsessed about MythoMagic, how he'd had fun. I learned a lot about Nico during those few days, and something seemed different about him. He seemed happier, less tense, as if he was finally comfortable around another living person.

It was strange, but nice to not feel like he would suddenly snap from dealing with people.

But there's only so much to talk about over the hours and hours of time we had, and there wasn't really anything left to talk about.

"What will I do when I can finally leave this stupid bed?" I asked irritably.

"What you always do. Go to activities, eat, and enjoy yourself. Just remember what I've been telling you, don't focus on past feelings or things that aren't possible, they only hurt you more."

Something was off with Nico while he said that last part. It was as if he was thinking of something he'd had to go through. I felt bad for him, because nobody every seemed to take interest in Nico because it always seemed that he wanted to be alone.

"Nico, whatever you've had to go through, I'm sorry. Sure not everything will happen the way we want it to, not everyone will do what we hope. But there's always a chance, and that's what we hope for."

"Not always." He mumbled to himself.

"What?"

"Nothing. How did you become so wise over the last few days?" He asked with mock amazement.

"Oh shut up."

"I could, but then what would you do except watch the ice in your water melt?"

I looked to the quickly, ignoring him, also with an expression of mock irritation.

I try to start another conversation to pass the time with Nico, but Chiron came in the door, in this wheelchair form.

"I think you're ready to leave the infirmary today Percy." Chiron told me.

"Finally!" I shouted as I stood up from what was my permanent residence for nearly a week.

I immediately started to get lighted and nearly fell over, but Nico lunged to me and grabbed my shoulder to hold me up.

"He said you could leave, not run." Nico said in a bit of a condescending tone, although I could see he was trying not to laugh at me.

When we got outside it was getting close to sunset. I just stood there with Nico by me, making sure I wouldn't fall over, and watched the sun set. People were walking around the camp, doing their usual activities. It seemed so normal until I focused on the people walking around. I noticed they were skirting around the edge of the clearing that we were in, and I saw some of them glancing at me, as if they were worried that I would snap and break everything around me.

I shouldn't have expected any more than this, but still, it hurt.

I don't know what's up with Nico, but he must've sensed something change, because he looked over at me and said "Don't worry about them, people are always nervous around anyone who isn't the social "norm," I know, I've had to deal with it for years."

I thought about it and realized how bad that must be for him, everyone avoiding him, nervous around him, afraid of what he'll do because he isn't their definition of normal.

"Come on," he said, "let's get you back to your cabin so you can rest."

"I've had enough rest." I mumbled unhappily, but I followed him anyways.

He took me inside my cabin and helped me sit on the edge of my bed. I was going to lie down, but I saw him move towards my dresser before he managed to stop himself.

"Go ahead, take the knife. I know no one trusts me with it."

He had a sad look in his eyes, but he picked up the knife and I saw him set something down in its place.

I was too tired from the walk and not curious enough to see what it was, so I just waited until he left and shut my door and as I drifted into a sleep, I muttered to myself "More rest, not like I've had enough of that in the last few days."

**I wanted to make this chapter longer guys, I'm sorry, but I'm really tired and I'm twisting my story a little so it's changing how I have to move my plot along. I have some new ideas and things to put in that will extend the story and, in my opinion, make it more interesting. I'm tired but I think this has been a pretty good chapter and it's moving the plot in a new direction from what I initially planned. Well, thanks to all of you for reading, I hope you've enjoyed the story so far. I hope to see you all in the next one!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**Gah! So many guests review! It's great, but there have been a couple I've wanted to reply to and ask their opinions, so if you guys can, make an account so I can talk to you, I'm sure you have ideas that could make this story a lot better!**

**Hello again everyone! Today I have an important question for all of you. Would you like me to do alternate endings to this story? I want you to PM me or review to tell me, but I have two ideas for endings to this story and I would like to write both. If I did alternate endings, I would start changing the labels on the chapters e.g. Chapter 8 ending 1 or Chapter 8 ending 2, so you can tell which story line you're reading on it. I like this idea, but I want you guys' opinion on it. Let me know what you think!**

**And now, onto Chapter 7!**

Percy's POV

I woke up the next day in my cabin.

It's been a while since I've woken up here. It was almost alien to me.

I decided that I might as well get up, so I showered and got myself ready for the day.

I figured Nico and Chiron wouldn't let me do my usual activities, since I was still weak and hadn't fully recovered yet. I walked outside and had to squint and look at the ground until my eyes adjusted to the bright light outside. It had been a while since I've been outside during the day.

It was later than everyone usually woke up, so I wasn't surprised when I came to the dining pavilion and found that there was nobody there. I looked at my table and saw Nico sitting there, waiting next to a plate of food that was blue. It didn't take a genius to figure he was waiting for me.

I slid into the table next to him in front of the plate of food.

"What's up Nico?"

"Not much, everyone has already separated for their activities, so it's just me here."

"How come you're here? You never stay at camp for this long."

He grinned at me and said "Because if I left who else would torment you?"

I laughed for the first time in a few days. I hadn't thought about it much, but I was really happy that Nico was still here, he was the only person in camp who was treating me the same. Everyone I'd seen had been skeptical to even come near me, or treated me with pity. Piper was the worst. She came for a visit on the second day that I was awake and told me she was sorry about what had happened.

I hated pity, I didn't want people to feel sorry for me, I wanted to be treated normally again. All I got anymore from anyone was either pity or fear that I would just snap.

Nico was the only person who seemed to really understand me and how I felt. He treated me how he always had, along with the aid he gave me getting better and the company that kept me from going insane with boredom.

"So I'm assuming Chiron still isn't allowing me to do my usual activites?"

"Nope," Nico said, "but I'm sure we can find something."

"Like what?"

"I have no idea, I figured you'd think of something."

I nodded while I sat and thought.

The rock wall was obviously out of the question.

I wouldn't be able to handle the monsters in the woods.

"I could handle water, if that has to do with anything." I said.

"Hmm, I'm not sure. Fishing? Or is that bad, you know, killing something your dad is the god of?"

I laughed "I'm pretty sure fishing would be fine." I said while Nico smirked sarcastically at me.

We went to find some fishing poles in the big house, seeing how everything was in there somewhere, then we walked to the docks.

We sat down on the dock and started fishing. It was strange doing something like this, just two guys doing something any regular mortal boys would. Stuff like this may not seem like much, but demigods don't get to experience it very often.

We'd been fishing for about twenty minutes when I had an idea.

"Hey Nico, you know what would make fishing easier?"

"What?" He asked, confused, "no powers, that's cheating."

"Yeah, yeah I know, that's not it. It would be easier if you think like the fish."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, genuinely confused now.

"You know, think how the fish think. The cool of the water, swimming, looking for food." I continued.

"I thought you were hurt in the stomach, but apparently you got hit in the head." He replied.

"Aww, come on. See, let me help you." I said, then I shoved him off the dock into the water.

"Hey!" He yelled as he managed to grab my shoe and pull me into the lake as he fell in.

I surfaced and he laughed at me. "Yeah, I can definitely feel the same as the fish now." He said as he splashed me.

I climbed out of the water back onto the dock and helped him back up.

"Well, now I have to go dry off." He said as he smacked the back of my head with mock anger.

"See? It would have been so much easier just to think like the fish, then I wouldn't have had to show you how to do it."

He shook his head, then he seemed like he remembered something and the smirk faded back to what he looked like normally.

"I'm gonna go change into dry clothes." He said.

I heard a strange tone in his voice when he said that. It was sad, like he'd just lost a family member.

"Nico, you ok?" I asked.

"Fine." He replied as he walked towards his cabin.

The rest of the day was fairly normal. Nico helped me around the camp as we went to watch what people were doing, like archery, Pegasus riding or sword fighting in the arena.

The arena was the last stop because I tripped into a weapons rack (fortunately empty of blades) and nearly blacked out when it hit my wound on my stomach.

Nico helped me stumble back to my cabin and helped me sit on my bed.

He started to walk away but I asked "Nico, what happened earlier? You seemed like you were having a great day and actually enjoying yourself, but you almost seemed like you lost your best friend after we were fishing."

He waited a few seconds before responding, "Don't worry about it Percy. Maybe someday, but not today."

He walked out of my cabin and shut the door behind him, leaving me to wonder what had happened to him.  
Had Nico lost someone? I knew Bianca had died, but he came to terms about that, and that never made him sad anymore, at least not on the outside.

I laid down and tried to figure it out, but nothing came to mind. I would just have to wait until he was ready to tell me. I dozed off, thinking about what could've caused him to get sad so quickly, as if he'd remembered something or someone who was gone, or out of his reach.

**And that's it! I'm sorry this was such a slow chapter guys, it does have a purpose though! I don't like writing filler chapters, so believe me when I say that this chapter does matter in the overall story! And remember, please let me know what you think about the alternate endings idea, I want to know what you think about it.**

**That's all, and I hope to see you in the next chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**HoH spoilers**

**Hey guys! I'm back, and I've decided to do the alternate endings, so that should be either next chapter that that starts, or the one after, depending on how this goes! I wanted to get this chapter out earlier today, but my family wanted to watch a movie, so here I am, armed with an orange pop and my imagination. Let's see how this goes!**

**Chapter 8!**

Percy's POV

I woke up in my cabin, to the sound of my own breathing and the saltwater fountain in the back of my cabin.

Not for the first time, I wished I had siblings to share the cabin with. It was always so empty and quiet here, and the only time that there was a reprieve from it was when Tyson was here, but he rarely visited anymore.

I got up and got ready for another slow day. After falling into that weapons rack yesterday my wound was aching more than it had for a few days.

When I finished getting ready, I went outside and to the dining pavilion like that day before.

Once again, although I wasn't surprised this time, Nico was leaning back on my table alone with everyone already to their daily activities.

Something was off today though, for some reason Nico was slouching more than usual as if he was depressed about something. It was kind of the same way he had been yesterday, except right now he wasn't talking so I could see his posture and his expressions as he looked at the ground.

"Hey Nico, what's up?"

He shrugged his shoulders, still looking at the ground "Not much."

"You ok man? You still seem a bit out of it from yesterday."

He didn't reply to that, he just gestured at my plate of food that was waiting on the table for me.

I sat down and he sat next to me, still looking down, not really focusing on anything as if he were lost in his own thoughts.

As I sat there, eating my food in silence, I realized how alone I still was. Nico had been the only source of friendship I'd had since, let's just call it the incident, and now that he was strung up on his own thoughts, I realized how alone I'd been since Annabeth left me.

… I still don't know how I feel about her anymore, there are too many emotions to pick just one, there's resentment, anger, sadness, longing, loneliness… the list goes on. I don't know what she wants either. I've seen her around as I've been going around camp with Nico, and she was always looking at me until I saw her, when she would look away. It was like she wanted to tell me something but was too scared to. Just one more person who was scared of me.

It was so frustrating, everyone seemed as if they were almost walking on eggshells around me, and the only person who was still genuinely acting like my friend was Nico, and now he was acting awkward.

I can barely stand it, and it's making me miserable.

My thoughts must've been showing in my expression because Nico looked over at me and asked "Percy, you ok?"

I looked over at him and saw concern in his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm ok, just thinking about stuff."

"You sure?" He seemed like he was out of his mood he'd been in.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"So what—" Nico started but I heard a familiar yell coming from the hill.

"PERCY!" Yelled someone who was arguably my most similar cousin, Thalia.

"What were you thinking!? Annabeth Iris messaged me a few days ago and told me what happened and it took me this long to convince Lady Artemis (I think that's the correct title?) to let me come knock some sense into you!" Thalia shouted at me.

"Percy, what do I have to-" Nico cut her off quickly.

"Come on Thalia, this isn't the time, you have no idea what he's gone through."

She stood there silently for a few seconds and looked at the ground.

"Sorry Percy, I just… I don't like seeing my friends get hurt." She said quietly.

"It's ok Thalia." I muttered looking at my shoes miserably. One more person to add to the list of people I'd let down.

"Percy really-" Nico cut her off again.

"You should probably go," He said quietly, "maybe talk to him again later, or tomorrow morning."

"Ok." She said miserably. I could tell she felt bad about talking that way, but I wasn't in any kind of a mood to talk to her.

"Well, umm, now what?" Nico asked.

"I don't know, I might just go to the lake or the stream." I said.

"You want me to go with you?" Nico asked.

"No, I want to just think alone. I promise I won't do anything." I told him.

"Alright, I guess I'll see you later then." He said as he walked off to do whatever it is that Nico does.

Nico's POV (about time right!? I hope I do it well)

I watched Percy walk off into the forest toward the stream on his own while I just waited.

I knew what he felt like, it was hard to lose someone you cared about.

I know how painful it is, and yet, I can't help but hope that he'll see that I care for him and that maybe he'll feel something for me.

I know that it's probably a lost cause to hope for something like that but I can't help it. Ever since I met him for the first time when I was 12 I had a crush on him, and the feelings had only intensified as the years went on.

I didn't know what else to do, so I went to talk to Jason. He usually seemed like he could keep his feelings or biases out of something when he talked to someone about something, and he was the only one who knew about my feelings for Percy, because of our experience with Cupid.

I found him with Piper, as he usually was, in the arena, teaching the few Aphrodite kids who were willing to fight some new moves. (I would say sparring, but Jason against Aphrodite kids? There wasn't really much contest)

"Jason, can you come with me for a few minutes? I need to talk to you."

"Sure," he replied "What's up?"

"Just follow me." I said.

I lead him out of the arena and towards the edge of the forest where nobody would be able to overhear us.

"It's about Percy." I said.

Jason seemed to become a little awkward, but managed to get it under control quickly.

"What about him?" He asked.

"Ever since he tried… You know, I've been the only one who's been treating him normally, so he's been hanging around with me a lot." I started.

"While he was stuck in bed, we talked about everything. He told me his entire life and all that he's been through, and I told him most about mine. We know each other a lot better now, and I can tell that he trusts me more because I haven't been treating him like a freak like everyone else does in this wretched camp." I spat.

"Nico, you need to understand that most people are scared of what they don't understand, and most of them haven't lost someone. You've been through what he's going through, so you understand him, and you're not afraid of him."

"It doesn't give them the right to treat people that way, but this is all beside the point. I came to talk to you because you're the only one who knows about my… feelings." I said slowly.

He waited for me to continue.

"Since the first day he was awake, I've been his only friend, and he's opened up to me because he trusts me. I… I love him more because of it. For the last few days I can't look into his eyes without getting lost in them. I have to constantly be watching myself so I don't do something like that and make him think I'm a freak," I said, "I just don't know what I should do, so I came to ask you."

Jason thought for a few seconds then said "If it matters to you so much, tell him how you feel. The worst that could happen is that he turns you down, then at least you'll know. Besides, don't worry about him thinking you're a freak, after all he's been through I'm sure Percy won't be judging anyone."

"I guess you're right, thanks Jason."

"No Problem." He said

As he was walking back into the arena I heard Piper ask "What was that about?"

"Nothing, just talking about stuff."

At least that was one thing I could count on, Jason could keep a secret when he wanted to.

Percy's POV

After a whole day at the stream I decided that I'd better get back before people started to worry about me.

I got back towards my cabin and saw Nico leaning against the wall next to my door.

I got up to him and asked "What's up Nico?"

"Not much, but, do mind if we go in your cabin? I need to tell you something." He said, stuttering through the sentence.

Nico didn't seem upset, what could he need to tell me that had him so nervous?

"Sure." I answered, and we walked through my door into the cabin.

I closed the door and turned to see him leaned against my bed, his face more pale than usual. He looked like he was going to pass out.

"Nico, are you alright?" I asked.

He bit his lip while looking at his shoes. "Yeah, I'm ok."

We stood there in silence for a few seconds as it seemed Nico was gathering his thoughts.

"Percy, there's something important I have to tell you, but… I want you to promise that you won't freak out, or act differently because of it."

"Did something bad happen? What-"

"Just promise" He said quietly.

"Ok, I promise, what do you need to tell me?"

"Percy…" He stuttered, then took a big breath and rushed out his next words before he could stop himself, "I have feelings for you. Ever since I met you when I was 12 I had a crush on you, and it never went away. Over the years my feelings have only gotten stronger, and over these last few days, you opening up to me, trusting me, it only made them harder to ignore. I can't look at your face anymore without nearly losing myself. Percy, I want to be together, I want you and me to be us."

What? Nico had feelings for me and he…

I tried to compose my thoughts, but I couldn't get them to straighten out, and I couldn't figure out how to put my jumbled thoughts into a complete sentence.

We stood there for nearly a minute in silence while Nico stared at me, waiting to hear what I would say.

"Nico, this is a lot to take in. Especially after my.. breakup with Annabeth. I need time to think about this."

He looked at the floor like he was ashamed of himself and depressed but I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," I said, and he looked up, "this doesn't mean we can't still be friends while I get my thoughts lined out. If there's anything I've learned over these last few days is how much it means to have someone who treats you how they should, even if other people think it isn't normal. You've shown me that over the last few days, and it's the least I can do to treat you the same way."

He gave me sad smirk and said with a fair amount of sarcasm "Percy Jackson learning life lessons from a son of the Lord of the Dead? What has this world come to?"

I smiled back as I took my hand off his shoulder, "Well, you did keep me from becoming part of his domain, so I owe you." I said.

"We both need to get some rest though, pardon the pun, but you look like you've seen a ghost."

"Alright." He said awkwardly.

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

He smirked "Of course."

I laid down onto my bed and thought to myself "Even more confusion and emotion to deal with? Why not."

Then I drifted off to sleep.

**Chapter 8! *applause* I'm sorry/You're welcome for the really long chapter compared to my others, depending on what you like! This one took a lot of time to finish up. If you don't like Nico's feelings for Percy, I'm sorry, but they're there, and they play a key role in decisions Percy is going to have to make later in the story, so even if you don't like them, or if you do, think of it as one more building block for this story! I hope you all enjoyed reading this, And I hope to see all of you in the next chapter!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**I'm back everyone! Sorry that it's been a while, I've just been having trouble getting motivated to write this chapter, and I've been pretty busy with Pre-Calculus homework and such. But I'm back, and I don't want to procrastinate another day for this chapter, so I'm back!**

**No more delays, you've been waiting long enough, so, Chapter 9!**

Annabeth's POV

I was in the arena with my cabin, going through the motions of practicing fighting with my siblings, although I wasn't focusing on it. Ever since I broke up with Percy I'd had a hard time focusing on what I've been doing.

At the time, it had seemed like the thing that I wanted, Adam is such a nice guy, and Percy had just seemed like an older brother. I hadn't wanted to hurt him, but it just didn't seem like we should be together, I had still wanted to be his friend, we'd been through so much together, but I didn't think we were meant to be together.

Then that all changed. When Nico and I found Percy and saw him collapse to the floor of his cabin with a knife in his stomach, I realized what he meant to me. I couldn't bear to think what would have happened if Nico hadn't had the idea to check his cabin to see if he was there.

I'd watched his eyes close as he blacked out, and realized that I did love him. I've wanted to talk to him, but I can't, I know he hates me now, there's no way that he doesn't after what I put him through. I don't know what to do, I feel so guilty I can barely stand to see him around camp. I'm worried about him but for the first time, I don't know what I should do.

I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice Thalia barge into the arena and storm (literally, being the daughter of Zeus she can do that) and startled me by starting to shout at me.

"How could you do this to Percy?!" She yelled, ignoring the startled looks from my siblings, "He's never done anything wrong to you, he gave up eternity with Calypso for you, he even gave up being a god just so he could stay with you!"

I didn't know how to respond to that, so I just stared at my feet as I felt a wave of guilt and shame wash over me.

"He's been miserable and you have the audacity to do nothing! The only person in this wretched camp who has been decent enough to be a friend to him when he needs it most is the person you all think of as a monster, Nico!" She paused, glaring at all of the other campers in the arena as they silently shuffled foot to foot, looking down.

"Thalia, I didn't know th—"

"No! I don't want to hear how you thought he would be ok, that he could just move on and you didn't think it would hurt him! You know what he's done for you, all he's given up for you, it's obvious he loved you and you threw it away!"

Annabeth's eyes started to tear up, but she held it in.

"What have you got to say for yourself?!" She shouted.

I couldn't take it anymore, I fell to the ground and started crying. I felt really guilty for what I'd done to Percy, I felt horrible for pushing away the best friend I'd ever had for someone else. He'd done so much, he showed me he loved me so many times, but I hadn't realized what he meant until he'd nearly left me and the rest of the world because of it.

"Hey," Thalia said softly, "I'm sorry, I know this is a hard topic, it's just… I can't stand seeing you or Percy like this. I hate seeing both of you miserable."

I nodded and wiped the tears from my face. I looked up and saw that my siblings had all left the arena, so it was only Thalia, me, and Mrs. O'Leary.

"What should I do?" I asked her.

"Talk to Percy, tell him what you feel, and tell him that you don't want him to hate you. Try to be his friend again."

"I don't want to be friends, I want to be… us. I want to be us again. After I saw what had happened to Percy I told Adam that we couldn't be together." I answered

She stood in silence for almost a minute, then said "I can't tell you how to fix this, but you'll think of something." She said with a friendly smile.

I was glad I had a friend like her, she may have a short temper, but she would listen.

Percy's POV

I laid on my bed all day. It was ridiculous, but I didn't want to go out and do anything, I had too many things and emotions to think about. After Nico told me how he felt, I couldn't stop thinking about how he'd acted ever since I met him for the first time, and how I could kind of tell now that he'd told me.

I didn't know how I should feel, but I didn't judge. I knew what it meant to people now to be treated normally, even if you are different. Being treated like a freak was awful, I wanted to return the favor to Nico now, and show that I didn't think of him as a freak.

I didn't know what to tell him though, and I'd been thinking about it all day. It was late afternoon, and I still didn't have anything to say, I wasn't sure.

It was as if I'd lost my eyesight, and didn't know where I was going. I couldn't straighten my thoughts or feelings.

I finally gave up, it would have to wait.

I got up and realized I still hadn't changed, so I took a quick shower and got dressed so I wouldn't look like I'd been in bed all day… I had, but that wasn't the point.\

I walked outside and had to squint at the light.

When my eyes adjusted, I saw that everything was as it usually was.

I decided I would go find Nico, because he was, after all, the only person who still treated me like I was a person.

After I'd searched for him for a while, I found him sitting on the beach staring out at the sea.

I came up behind him quietly and put my head right next to his just out of his field of vision and asked "What are you looking at?"

He jumped and hit me in the chin with his shoulder.

"Gods Percy, don't do that!"

"Why, is the Ghost King scared?" I asked with a smirk.

"With good reason, who wouldn't be scared with you right behind them." He said looking back at the ocean.

I sat down next to him and we just sat in silence until I noticed him glancing over at me.

"Yes?" I said, drawing out the word as I dramatically swung my head over to look towards him.

"It's just… You haven't said anything yet Percy, and I don't know what to expect." He replied, looking at the sand by his hands.

"To be honest Nico, I don't know either. My emotions have been too scrambled over the last few days for me to make sense of them, but don't worry. I still want us to be friends, you are the one who saved me after all, I think I owe you respect at least."

He smiled and looked back up at the ocean.

"So, race you back to the dining pavilion? I haven't eaten or even left my cabin today, I could use the food and the exercise." I said.

"Come on Percy," He said, a bit sarcastically, "what are we, ten?"

I looked over at him again with a grin "I still eat blue food. I think it's ok to act like a kid once in a while."

He smiled and answered "You're on." And started to run.

I quickly got up and ran after my only friend.

**Chapter 9! I apologize again for the delay, but I couldn't get myself to write yesterday and I've have some bad writer's block, but I got it done! Well, next chapter will the start of the branching stories, so this will be interesting. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review, and I hope to see you in the next chapter!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

'**ello everyone! How are you doing today? This is going to the first chapter of the branch, from here on out I will label the chapters like this one, e.g. Chapter 10 Ending 1.**

**Well, this is going to interesting, because I don't know where I'm going with this chapter other than a very vague idea of where I want to end up.**

**Oh well, Chapter 10, Ending 1 branch, Enjoy!**

Percy's POV

I was wandering around my cabin, too energetic to lay down like yesterday.

Yesterday had been too good of a day for me to be depressed. I'd managed to get Nico to act normally around me, despite the fact that I could still occasionally see how awkward he felt, but more or less, he was acting like he had been before he'd told me about his feelings.

Also, people were starting to treat me like I was actually a person. I heard a few people talking about how Thalia had gone off at something and pretty much yelled at everyone for being a horrible people for how they were treating me, and I guess they took it to heart, because they were acting a bit more like normal, not completely, but more so than they had been.

I still didn't know what to say to Nico though, I couldn't manage to straighten out my feelings enough to figure them out, but I knew I would have to tell him sometime.

It could wait, for now I just wanted to enjoy the day. This was the best I'd felt in a week and a half, and I wanted to enjoy it.

I walked out into the bright day and saw a usual day at camp, but through different eyes. I saw the strawberry fields, campers going to their activities, the sun shining off of the canoe lake in the distance, everything just seemed better today.

Chiron had decided that I was finally well enough for activities, so I went to find Nico so we could train. I'd never been so excited to be able to run or swing a sword.

Then, the unexpected happened, because I'm not allowed to have a simple day anymore.

Annabeth called "Percy!" from somewhere behind me.

I stopped, standing there in confused, not sure what to do. She had hardly looked at me since she broke up with me, let alone talked to me. Why would she seem like she needed to talk to me so much.

I hadn't turned around so when she caught up she put her arms around me from behind and held me tight. I just stood there, staring at her hands in shock.

I pulled her hands away from me, taking a step back as I turned around.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Percy, I messed up, I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking when I broke up with you, I was just confused. I never thought you cared about me so much, I thought we almost had the same relationship as siblings." She said, "I looked up to you, I still do, but I didn't know how much you meant to me until you were nearly gone forever." She said.

I didn't know what to say. After all of this, my depression, suicide attempt, feeling so alone and miserable, she decided that I actually meant something to her? Now? She'd made me completely miserable and expected me to immediately take her back when she realized that I was important to her?

I didn't answer her, I stood silently, looking at the ground.

I knew I still had feelings for Annabeth, but she'd destroyed my trust, and I didn't know what to do. My emotions were already a complete mess without this happening, now I had a complete new thing to try to straighten out in my mind.

She took a step towards me, but I took a step back from her.

She looked at me with some sadness in her eyes, along with traces of guilt that I could see. "Percy?" she said quietly.

"I… I need time Annabeth. I haven't been able to think straight for days, and now you ask me to take you back. I just… I need time to think about it ok?" I said.

"Ok…" She replied dejectedly, looking at her shoes.

I knew I'd hurt her, but I meant what I said. I didn't know what would be the best thing to do, Nico had confessed his feelings for me, and that was hard enough to try to think about. Then this. I needed time to think and figure out what I wanted to do.

Annabeth walked away from me, and I watched her go.

Just then, Nico out of the woods and saw me. "Hey Percy, where've you been all day?" He asked with a smile, "I haven't seen you all morning, I figured you must've gone for a run, seeing how you're allowed to now."

Then he saw my face, and he got a bit concerned "You ok Percy?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?" He asked.

"It's… Annabeth came a talked to me."

I told him what she had said to me and he got really serious.

"So what are you going to do?" He asked, not making eye contact with me.

"I don't know Nico, after you told me… you know, and now this. I haven't been able to straighten out my own thoughts to figure out what I even think about any of this."

He was silent.

"I think I'm gonna go to my cabin, I need to think and try to figure out what's going on in my head." I said.

Nico just nodded and I headed back to my cabin.

I laid down on my bed, and thought.

I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll figure it out eventually. Figuring out my emotions was hard enough, now this?

There was nothing left to do, so I sat, trying to figure out my emotions.

**Sorry about that short chapter guys, but I'm mainly trying to point the story in the direction that I want it to go in at this point. The next chapter I post will be the equivalent of this one, but on the other branch of the story, and I hope you all read both!**

**This was chapter 10 Ending 1, and I hope you enjoyed! Please Review, and I hope you see you in the next chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**I'm really really sorry! I hope none of you are mad, and I know it's been a week(?) since I updated the story, I've just been swamped in school. I had a ton of PreCalculus homework that I needed to catch up on, finals to study for, and just a lot of stuff to do in general to get ready for the new trimester that started yesterday.**

**I hope all of you are understanding about this, and I hope you'll forgive but here's Chapter 11 Branch 1!**

Percy's POV

For the first time in weeks, I had a dream, or more accurately, a nightmare. A really, really bad nightmare, even by my standards

_I was in the air. Nothing was under my feet supporting me, nobody was there holding me, I just… was._

_I couldn't see anything around me, except dark fog, as if I was in a stormy night sky._

_I looked around, frantically. I knew I shouldn't be in the sky, it was never a good thing for a child of Poseidon to be in the sky, but I had no way to get down._

_The wind was ripping at my clothes, and skin, the cold biting at my exposed skin._

_Suddenly, I could hear voices, taunting me. I couldn't figure out where they were coming from, and they didn't sound anything like anyone or anything I'd ever encountered._

_They were just whispers, quiet, but they sounded like they were cutting into my consciousness._

"_Son of the Sea" I heard, "you are not wanted anymore. Your friends aren't loyal to you, they only treated you as a friend until you were no longer needed for their survival."_

"_No!" I yelled back, "That's not true, my friends still care, they didn't let me die!"_

"_You know that isn't true, the only person who did anything to help you was the son of Hades, and you know now why he did."_

_The voices seemed to be swirling around my head, coming from every direction._

"_They wouldn't miss you if you were gone, they only needed you as a weapon, and as such, now that you are no longer needed, they only need to discard you."_

"_I can't- The voices intensified immediately cutting off my own thoughts "No! You aren't needed, wanted, or useful for anything or anyone! You're "friends" don't care, they have no feelings for you. Your fellow campers have lost their need for you, and your own father hasn't contacted you in any way for over a year."_

_I collapsed to my knees, clamping my hands over my ears, trying to block out the voices, but they were still there, repeating over and over the same message. No one needs you, no one wants you._

_I fell to my side, hands over my ears, eyes shut tight, muttering to myself "They care, someone cares, anyone…"_

I woke up back in my bed, muscles tight, flinching from the fear and tension of the dream. My hands were gripping my sheets so tight that my knuckles were white, and my pillow was damp where my head was lying.

I let go the sheets and tried to stop shaking. I couldn't get what the voices had said out of my mind. No one needs me, no one wants me.

I could feel the depression setting in again, worse than it had ever been before.

I got up and walked to my nightstand. I pulled open the drawer and pulled my journal out, and went back to my bed, sitting on the edge.

I stared at the cover, unable to straighten my thoughts out.

No one cared for me. I didn't have any purpose any more.

I opened my journal looking at what all the stories and adventures that I'd written down.

There was still a tinge of red at the edge of a couple of the pages. I must've dropped it onto the floor the last time.

It was still the night when I finished reading the entire thing again. I was going to put the journal down, but the pages shifted over a bit and I saw the edge of something written on the next page. I knew I hadn't written any more than what I was already looking at, and it wasn't in my handwriting.

I flipped the page over to see notes written in it. Was that why Nico had set it by my bed while I was in the infirmary? I started reading the notes.

They were similar in how they were written, words of encouragement from my friends, although they had personality in them. Leo's had some humor in it, Jason's was very straightforward, Nico's was more understanding because he had been through the same thing when he lost Bianca, the girls' were more emotional.

I finished reading through all of them and got to the last note, and was surprised to see that I was familiar with the handwriting.

Annabeth had written a note?

I read it, and found that I was smiling when I finished it. It was filled with emotion, I could tell that immediately. She apologized for breaking up with me several times through it, told me she still cared, and that she was wrong thinking that I didn't mean very much to her. There were also some water spots on the page that I suspected were marks left by tears dripping onto the paper while she had been writing it.

It made me smile to read the notes, but I didn't know how I felt about Annabeth's note. I was happy that she felt the way she did, but I don't know how I still feel about her. She hurt me when she did that to me, and I couldn't forgive her for that. I wanted to, but it hurt to think about that day.

I put the journal away in the drawer and went back to bed. The last thoughts going through my head before I drifted off were of my friends, and that they hoped I knew that I was still wanted here.

**That's it! I hope you forgive odd writing, or spelling errors, I'm very sleep deprived right now and finishing this in school, so I hope you enjoyed this! I hope that you forgive me for taking so long to update. I'll try to update more quickly now that I'm not as busy. Please review, and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**I'm back once again! I want to make up for the lack of updating over this last week, so here I am again. Just to clarify, sorry for the confusion, it was brought to my attention that some people are getting confused reading the branching stories. Make sure you look at the title of the chapter, I have it labeled for which branch it is, and don't skip anything! There are some key differences in the stories that are necessary later in the story!**

**Well, I hope you enjoy this on, Chapter 12 Branch 1!**

Percy's POV

I woke up in my bed, and stared at the ceiling.

I couldn't stop thinking about the notes that I'd read the night before, and I couldn't help but smile whenever I thought about them.

I still didn't know what I thought about Annabeth's note. I'd been thinking about it a lot and couldn't figure out how I felt about Annabeth. She's hurt me worse than anyone else ever had, but she'd apologized, and I'm pretty sure the tears were a good way to tell she was being sincere.

I don't know, I can't forgive her for something like that, regardless of the apology.

I decided there was nothing to do but get ready and leave my cabin.

I showered and changed into some fresh clothes and walked around my cabin, pretending to make sure I had everything, even though I already knew that I did.

I finally stopped waiting and walked outside. I had to shield my eyes from the sun after the darkness inside of the cabin. My eyes adjusted after a few seconds and I looked around at everyone going around camp. After my nightmare I didn't see how everyone was having a normal day.

I walked towards the pavilion to eat my breakfast. Everyone was already gone because Chiron was still being pretty lenient with my about my schedule, so I didn't need to be there at the same time as everyone else.

I sat at my table next to Nico like I did every day and started to eat my breakfast.

After a couple minutes of silence Nico asked "Are you alright Percy? You look like you didn't sleep at all."

"Yeah. Yeah I'm ok, I didn't sleep very well."

Nico looked at me curiously, but he didn't ask any more questions.

Once I finished eating my breakfast, we stood up and I looked over to Nico.

"So what are we going to do today? We can go to the arena and practice sword fighting, I still can't find people who will get close enough to me to spar, so it's been a while."

"Sure, I just need to go get my sword out of my cabin."

I followed Nico across the camp to his cabin and stood in the doorway as he went towards the back to get his sword.

I started thinking about the notes again, or more specifically, Annabeth's note. I hadn't been able to stop thinking about it during any quiet moment yet.

I was so far into my own thoughts I didn't notice Nico come back until he punched me in the shoulder "Percy!"

I stumbled back a few steps, "What was that for?"

"You were standing in the way and apparently didn't hear me the first two times I told you."

"Oh." I felt really stupid, but then again, I felt like that a lot lately.

We went across the camp, talking about what we could do during the day until we got to the arena.

The Athena cabin was already there, sparring with each other.

Oh no, I thought to myself.

Nico must've noticed something in my expression change, "What?"

"Nothing… I just had a dream last night." I replied.

Once again, Nico looked curious, but let me keep my secrets to myself.

We walked over to the edge of the arena, so we were more or less away from the Athena cabin and pulled our swords.

"So, think you can still beat me?" Nico asked with a smirk.

"Any time." I replied.

After that, everything just kind of turned into a blur. I was out of shape from the weeks of doing very little, but Nico attacked mercilessly regardless of it.

After a while, we finally took a break to get some water. We walked over to the edge of the arena and were sitting down drinking some water, when I looked over towards the Athena kids, who were still sparring.

Then I saw Annabeth looking over at me.

I wasn't sure what she was looking at, maybe the fact that this was the first time in a long time that I was genuinely smiling. I enjoyed sparring with Nico, it was a challenge.

I looked back at her for a while, then she glanced at the other kids in her cabin and walked over to me.

I stood up, but I wasn't sure what to say when she got over to me.

I waited for a few seconds before she said "So Seaweed Brain, you're finally practicing again."

It was strange hearing her call me that. Usually she was laughing at me, or at least smiling, but now she sounded mostly emotionless, and I could see her shifting foot to foot awkwardly.

"Umm, yeah, Chiron is finally letting me start doing all my regular activities again, and Nico is helping me out."

"Well," Annabeth paused, as if trying to figure out what to say, "If you ever want to, you can spar with my cabin. I don't think they would mind."

"Maybe, I'll think about it I sometime." Gods this was awkward.

"Um, ok, I guess I'll see you later…" She said.

"Ok"

She opened her mouth part way, then closed it again and walked back over to her cabin-mates, ignoring the stares she was getting from them.

I looked over at Nico and saw him trying to hide a smirk.

"What now?" I asked him.

"You are the most awkward person I've ever seen." He replied, nearly laughing at me.

"Come on, let's get back to practice."

We went back over to our corner, but now Nico was destroying me because I couldn't focus. All I could think about was Annabeth's invitation to come practice with here cabin, the past few weeks, the notes, and my dream.

**I apologize now, I don't think this was a very good chapter, but I wasn't sure how I should go about writing it. I hope all of you are enjoying the story, but really fast I want to correct an error. It was brought to my attention that a few chapters ago I said Nico was 12 when he met Percy for the first time, when he was actually 10. I must've mixed up the facts with another character, but I hope it didn't annoy anyone too much. Well, that's it, please review and let me know what you think, and I hope to see all of you in the next chapter!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**Two updates in one day? Lies and slander! I hope you guys enjoy this, because I wanted to make up for the lack of updates over the last little while, so this will help me feel better about neglecting my story for that little while.**

**I hope you all enjoy this!**

**Chapter 13 Branch 1**

Percy's POV

I woke up again the next day and immediately began thinking about what had happened the day before.

I hadn't been able to stop thinking about what was going on with Annabeth the entire day after what had happened in the arena when I was practicing with Nico, and it distracted me from everything that was going on, and if I wasn't such a terrible shot, I would've accidently shot Nico while he was getting his arrows at archery.

I had gone to bed thinking about it and wondered if things would ever get better between Annabeth and I, even if it just meant that we could be friends again. I hated being alone, and as much as Nico was helping me, he was still my only friend. The rest of the Seven had still yet to say anything to me in person, just the notes that they had written me.

There wasn't anything I could do about it though, and the end of the summer was coming up in a few days, so there wasn't time anyway.

I went outside and to the pavilion like I did every day and sat next to Nico.

"So what today?" I asked him.

"I'm not sure." He replied, but he kept looking at me as if he was wondering something.

"Umm, Nico, what are you looking at?"

"Nothing, you just look like you're out of it today. Did you get any sleep?"

"I got enough sleep, I just have a lot on my mind."

"What is it?"

I hesitated, not sure what to say to him. "Do you think things will ever be normal again?"

"I'm not sure what you mean." He replied.

"I just- Do you think everyone will ever treat me normally again? Annabeth ignores me now most of the time, and I wish we could at least be friends again, we've been through a lot together. And the rest of the Seven, none of them have even said anything to me in person. I don't know why everyone is avoiding me now, and I just want people to treat me normally again."

"Percy, I know what you're going through, and I doubt everything will ever be the exact same again, but people will start treating you like a friend again sometime. I can't say how long it will take, but it will start to be normal again."

I didn't know what it was, something sounded off in Nico's voice. Was it… hurt?

"Are you alright Nico?"

"I'm fine, just answering your question." He replied.

I looked back down at the table that we were sitting at.

After I'd finished eating my breakfast we had decided to the ocean, because I hadn't been over there for a while and I thought it would be good to be in the ocean again.

When we got there I immediately dove into the ocean, feeling the water rush past me as I swam though it, enjoying the cool feeling of the water, the power it had behind it as it crashed down in waves.

After a couple minutes of swimming around underwater, I came up and looked back to the shore to see Nico sitting on the beach smirking at me, as if he was enjoying watching me act so childish.

"I can pull you in here too if you think the water is so funny." I called to him as I made some water go up the beach and stop just short of him.

He quickly moved up the beach a little ways (as if he could get away quick enough) and stopped again.

I shook my head and wondered why he hated the water so much.

After about an hour of swimming I figured I'd made Nico wait bored for long enough and walked out onto the beach with a small ball of water behind my back.

"It's about time you got out," He told me, "you were in there for over an hour while I waited."

I splashed the water in his face and said "I was hoping you would do something less boring than sit there, so that's your penance."

He looked a little annoyed as he shook his head, getting some of the water out of his hair and wiping it off of his face, but it went away quickly and we walked back towards the camp.

We spent the rest of the day doing various activities; sword fighting, climbing the rock wall with lava on it (I needed to get back in shape, so I needed a little extra challenge), archery because he insisted that I needed to practice it sometimes, and pegasus riding, which turned out to be a challenge because they didn't like Nico. After talking to them for a while, and giving them a fair amount of sugar cubes, they agreed to let Nico ride.

We were sitting the pavilion talking about random stuff passing the time until we figured we should rest.

"Alright, well it's probably time to 'sleep' so I'm going back to my cabin now." Nico told me.

"Alright, well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then Nico."

Nico walked off to his cabin while I sat at the table for a little longer, thinking about random little things that my ADHD decided were important.

When I finally decided that I should go to bed, I stood up and turned around and nearly ran into Annabeth.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't mean to-" I stopped talking. Was she ok? Annabeth was awkwardly shifting her eyes from my face, to the ground, and back again.

"Are you ok Annabeth?"

"I'm ok Percy, it's just… I want to…" She stuttered, standing really close to me after I had nearly walked into her.

She looked back up at my eyes for a few seconds, then surprised me. A lot.

She stood on her tip-toes, grabbed the back of my head, and kissed me.

It only lasted a second, but when she broke away I just stood there, not sure what I should do.

She quickly turned around and walked to her cabin without saying anything. I opened my mouth to say something after her, but the words were jumbled on my tongue and I couldn't get anything to come out.

I walked to my cabin in a daze and laid down on my bed without even taking off my clothes off. I didn't know what I was supposed to think, and my emotions were all jumbled up again. Part of me wanted to go find her and hold her tight, and another part was yelling that she would just hurt me again.

I finally stopped the voices for a few seconds and drifted off to sleep.

**That's it! I hope you guys enjoyed that little end scene, I figured it was about time for something like that to happen. I don't really have anything to say right now, except I'm leaving to visit my sister out of state this weekend so I don't know if I'll be able to update or not while I'm there, so I hope I can, but no promises. Well, please review and let me know what you thought of this chapter, and I hope to see all of you in the next chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**I'm back! I had a good weekend with my brother-in-law and sister. Before anyone gets angry, I know I said I would have some chapters out, but I didn't have time. We took our small car and we were really cramped, so I didn't have the space or privacy I wanted to write, so I just couldn't. I know, I know, I said I would get some written, but I didn't. I'll try to make up for it by updating at least once a day for the next bit, but considering this story is nearing the end, that might not be long.**

**Another thing, I've been getting very, very few reviews. Please, if you guys are enjoying the story, review. Let me know what you like, what you don't and I'll try to get better at writing for you guys!**

**I hope to keep improving, and I have a few questions for you guys when I to the end of this story, so when the end comes, please read the author's note at the end, it's going to have important questions that I really need input on because I'm very indecisive and I don't know what people like.**

**That was a long note, but now it's time for the story!**

**So, let the writing begin! My laptop, my new rap to listen to as I write, and my imagination. Let's do this!**

**I hope you enjoy! Chapter 14 Branch 1**

Percy's POV

I woke up early in the morning and was immediately assaulted by a torrent of emotion and confusion.

I started to think about the kiss again from last night that Annabeth had given me, and tried to figure out what I thought about it. I felt like I'd wanted stop her from walking away and kiss her again, but at the same time I wanted her to stay away from me because she would hurt me again if I trusted her.

I knew that if I didn't figure this out soon, it would have to wait for another 9 months for camp to start again after the new school year.

The problem was, I knew I wouldn't be able to solve this in the coming week.

I'd been through too much over the summer to straighten out my thoughts and emotions in as little as a week, as much as I wished that I could.

I decided I need to take my mind off it, so I tried to go to sleep, imagining the sea, the ocean breeze, and the sand on the beaches to distract myself and try to fall asleep. About thirty minutes later, I did.

_And I was outside again._

_It took me a few seconds to realize that I was in a dream, but I wasn't sure why I was here. I took in where I was and saw that I was by the lake, sitting a little ways away from the shore. Then I realized I wasn't alone. I looked over and saw Annabeth sitting silently next to me._

_I tried to figure out what was going on, then I realized. This was what had happened after the Titan War. I wasn't in control of my actions, and I figured this was more of a memory than a dream._

_It went just like it had the first time that it happened, I talked to Annabeth about random things, laughed, and enjoyed being with her. Then, we kissed and all of the campers flooded out of hiding and carried us to the lake and threw us in, and we kissed at the bottom of the lake in the air bubble that I had created._

_I felt all the same emotions I had when it really happened, but intensified. I knew I couldn't drown underwater, but that was the only thing I could think of for how the rush of emotion felt to me. It felt like I was drowning in it, unable to think except for realizing the emotions._

I woke up.

I saw the sunlight streaming gently into the cabin, illuminating the dust particles in the air.

I sat up and tried to figure out what was going on, because that had only made it harder for me to figure out my feelings.

Later, after eating breakfast next to Nico as I always did, we were wandering around camp trying to find a way to speed the day.

Whenever I saw Annabeth, I found a reason to avoid her. I had enough out right now, I didn't need more confusion.

We eventually decided to go to the arena again, since that was the one thing we both seemed to be good at.

We practiced for hours until we both finally got tired and finally quit and went back to our cabins to clean up.

After we both had showered and had new clothes, we went to dinner with the rest of the cabin.

Given the current situation, Chiron had made an exception to the regular rules so Nico could sit by me. It had gotten some odd looks for the first few days, but by now everyone was used to it.

During the meal, while Nico was pausing to eat some of the little food he did eat, I looked around and noticed Annabeth looking at me. I couldn't figure out why, but for some reason it made me uncomfortable.

I didn't keep looking at her, but it was almost like I could feel her eyes on me. They felt wet, like peaches **(Name that movie!)**. Eventually the meal was over, and Nico said he was tired and went back to his cabin. I just sat at my table. I had nothing better to do, so I sat and thought. Soon it was just me in the pavilion, so I tuned out everything else and just focused on my thoughts.

After a little while, I heard someone walking up behind me.

I wasn't sure who would talk to me other than Nico, and he had already gone to bed, so I wasn't sure.

I turned around on my bench to see Annabeth standing awkwardly behind me, slightly shifting back and forth and her feet.

"Umm, Percy. About last night…" She started

I figured she was going to apologize or try to tell me why, so I just stopped her then, "It's fine, don't worry about it." I tried to keep my voice monotone, and I think I did pretty well.

"It's not that, it's..." She paused, trying to figure out what she was going to say, or how she was going to say it, "I just want you to know... I know I hurt you, badly, and if you don't forgive me, I understand, but I want you to know I'm still here for you. When I apologized before and told you I still have feelings for you, I wasn't lying. Whether you believe me or not, I don't know, but I just want you to remember that I'll always be here for you." And with that, she turned around and walked off into the camp alone.

I sat alone at my table. I didn't know if I forgave Annabeth for what happened or not. I hadn't been able to figure that part out yet.

I slowly walked back towards my cabin, thinking about what had just happened, the night before and her note she had written me in my journal.

I laid down on my bed for what I assumed would be another night of restless sleep. I hoped that the dream wouldn't make a reappearance, because this was confusing enough as it already was.

I felt my eyes start to drift together, and as I was falling asleep, I traced a name on the sheets next to me. I don't remember what I was, I just remember the motion of my hand against the sheet as I drifted into unconsciousness.

**Yeah! More drama and confusion! I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter, because it was… interesting to write. Once again, REVIEW! I've gotten like 1 each chapter for the last few, and I want to get more feedback than that. Please, let me know if you enjoyed it, what enjoyed, what you didn't, and I'll try to improve.**

**I hope all of you have a great day, and I hope to see you in the next one!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**Well, I'm a bit disappointed. On my last chapter I only got 1 review, and it was kind of an angry question, so… I don't know. This branch is probably down to this and 1 more chapter until it's over, but I'm not really motivated or happy to write this one. Those of you who read the last chapter and didn't give any feedback can take the blame for that, so if it seems very unemotional or boring this chapter, you know why. Please review this one, it means a lot to me to know whether or not people are enjoying this or not.**

**Chapter 15 Branch 1**

Percy's POV

_The last day of Camp_

I woke up after a dreamless, but restless, night. I was sad that Camp was almost over and we would have to go to school, but at least I would have the school year to straighten my thoughts and emotions out.

Nothing out of the ordinary had happened over the last week of class, every day was the same. Eat breakfast with Nico, go train with him, eat dinner, then go back to our cabins for the night. Day after day, it was always the same. Annabeth never talked to me after that night and my mind was finally getting a bit back to where it used to be.

I walked out of my cabin and went to meet Nico at the pavilion for the last time this year. I sat down beside him with my breakfast and started to eat. He was staring at his hands on the table, thinking about something or other. He did this quite often, so I was used to it.

After a couple minutes I gave up waiting for him so I looked over at him and asked him "What are you going to do now that Camp is finally over?"

He was quiet for a few seconds, thinking about something. He finally answered "I'm not sure. I'll probably go back to the Underworld and train with the dead. Maybe find out more about my family if I can."

"So you're just going to go back to what you always did? Be alone in the Underworld all the time? You seemed like you enjoyed yourself in Camp, why not stay on the surface?"

"Because I only stayed up here to help you recover Percy, and from the looks of it, you're recovered."

I looked down at the table and said a bit angrily "So my only friend is going to start avoiding me too."

Nico didn't reply to that, and I hoped I made him feel guilty. I didn't have anyone else, and Nico was my only friend. Annabeth had said she would always be there for me, but I don't know if I believe her yet. This has been hard enough without my only friend leaving me on my own.

I stood up and started to walk away before Nico said, "Percy."

I turned around and saw him looking down at the table dejectedly.

"You know very well why I can't stay here."

I hesitated a few seconds, "I don't know what you mean."

He looked at me, but he wasn't angry. Just sad. "I told you how I felt, and I hoped the little I dared that you would return those feelings. I can tell now that you don't and I just can't stay here knowing that."

I looked back at him, feeling guilty of myself. "Nico, I'm sorry. I've thought about that a lot, and I really wish that I could. But I don't feel that way, I can't."

Nico just nodded and looked back down at the table.

"Nico, regardless of that, I still want to be friends. I told you that I wouldn't treat you differently when you told me that, and I meant it. Can't you at least come visit once in a while? You need company that isn't dead once in a while, and I've enjoyed being your close friend over the last few weeks."

He stared at the table for a few seconds. "I might. I can't promise anything, but I may come occasionally to visit. You're obviously going to need someone to check on you to make sure you don't do anything stupid again." He had a sad smirk on his face for the end bit.

I smirked back at him and said, "Come on, let's go pack up before the harpies eat our stuff."

Once again I was repeating what had happened every year. I was standing on top of Half-Blood Hill, with my bag over my shoulder, and Nico standing a bit off to the side.

"I'm leaving now Percy." He said.

I nodded, then walked over to him and offered my hand.

He looked a bit surprised, but tentatively took my hand and shook it.

"I'll see you sometime then."

He nodded, then I watched as he stepped in the shadow of Thalia's tree and melted into the shadows.

I kept standing there alone, watching as everyone left. Some had their parents pick them up and they drove off with them, others were loading their stuff into the van that was going to be driven into the city by Argus.

I stood and watched everyone, and noticed Annabeth packing her backpack into the van. She turned around and saw me standing on top of the hill, and waved at me. I wasn't sure what else I could do, so I waved back as she stepped into the van.

I looked back at the camp, seeing the year-rounders training in small groups. I looked over the sea, the canoe lake, the strawberry fields, the arena, and the woods. I would miss this place, I always did, but I was glad to see my mom and Paul, and possibly forget the emotional stress and bad experiences I'd had over the summer.

I whistled for Blackjack and waited for him to arrive, watching the Camp.

When he got there, I climbed onto his back and told him to take me home.

As we soared into the sky towards Manhattan, I thought about everything that had happened, and I hoped that everything would be ok.

**Well, that's it for this chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it, even if it wasn't that great. Please review and let me know what you guys think, and I hope to see you in the next one.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**Hello again everyone! Once again, I apologize, but I'm leaving to go out of state for the weekend, so I don't know if I'll be able to update. The drive will be even longer this time, so I'll have time to write if I have ideas. I was planning on this being the last chapter, but someone said in a review that they would like to see what would happen when he got home, so I think this will be a combined chapter for both branches, as there isn't supposed to be any variation in this part.**

**Also, sad to say, this story is almost over, so I need new ideas! I'm asking all of you to review or PM me ideas, because I'm not creative at coming up with ideas, so, please suggest anything from Romance, to Depressing topics, AU (I'll consider it) or anything. I'll consider all of them for my next story and please give me a brief description of it to build off of.**

**Lastly, I'm considering putting a likeness of myself into the next story as an OC, solely because I think it would be interesting and I can follow my own train of thought and emotions. I'll put a short description of my appearance and personality at the bottom, and let me know which godly parent you think I would have, or a few things to change that would make it that way.**

**This was way longer than I wanted the note to be, so now, let's begin!**

**Chapter 16 Combined Branches**

Percy's POV

Blackjack dropped me off near the apartment where my mom lived in an out-of-the-way alley where there was nothing but a homeless man who was asleep against a dumpster.

I walked out of the alley and onto the street into the bustle of people who were always present in Manhattan. I looked around and felt a small surge of happiness. I was back in my element. Some people may not be comfortable in crowded areas like New York, but this was where I'd grown up, and I was used to being here.

I walked down the street towards our apartment, dodging through people, and occasionally across the street to get where I needed to. The streets were filled with honking cars, loud people bustling around each other, each going wherever they were needed, whether it was going home, to work, or to visit someone.

It took about thirty minutes of walking through the streets until I stood in front of my apartment building. I knew my mom and Paul would be there, waiting for me to arrive home.

I stood there for a few more seconds before walking into the building. I decided to take the stairs because it would probably be faster and the exercise didn't bother me. After fighting countless monsters, titans, and giants, not very much did.

I walked up the stairs quickly and hesitated for a second before opening the door. Had anyone told my mom what had happened? I knew she deserved to know, but at the same time, I didn't want her to worry about me like I knew she would.

I gripped the doorknob and opened it. About a two seconds after I'd opened the door I was buried in my mom's arms in a hug.

"Percy what happened to you?" I assumed someone had told her what had happened.

"Mom, I'm fine ok?" I told her, hoping to reassure her.

She held me out at arm's length by my shoulders. "No you're not, you can't expect me to believe that after what happened."

"Mom, really I'm ok. You don't need to worry about me, Nico has been helping me recover."

She pulled me to my room by my arm and made me sit down on my bed.

"I want you to tell me everything that happened."

I could tell she wasn't going to let me off without telling her, so I gave in. I recounted everything that had happened to me. I told her about the breakup, the next few days of depression, the dreams telling me that I was alone and didn't have anyone who cared for me, Nico helping me recover since the moment I woke up in the infirmary (Although I left the bit out of him admitting his feelings), the notes, though I didn't share what they actually said, and everything in between.

She was a good listener and didn't interrupt while I was talking. She had some tears in her eyes, but they weren't getting farther than that.

"How could you think no one cares for you Percy? Even without Annabeth, you have some great friends who are always there for you, along with me and Paul."

I felt guilty for what I'd put her through, but I didn't know what to say to her.

"I'm sorry." I said.

She smiled at me, "You don't need to be sorry Percy, just remember that I'm always here for you, and so are your friends."

She pulled me into another hug and I couldn't help from feeling a bit better next to her. My mom had always been really understanding of anything I did, and I liked feeling that she understood what I'd been through.

Well, I'm going to go start dinner, Paul will be home soon too, so you'd better put your things away if you want to have time to relax tonight. Remember you have school starting again next Monday.

I groaned a little bit at the thought of going back to school. The idea of math, english, and reading homework nearly made me long for fighting monsters.

My mom left my room and I started unpacking. I had all of my clothes put away, and had my pen in my pocket as I always did. I got to the bottom of the bag and found my journal. I flipped it open quickly and read the notes again. I smiled after I'd finished them and put the journal into the drawer of my nightstand.

"Percy, dinner is ready!" I heard my mom call.

"I'm coming!" I yelled back.

I walked to my door and looked back into my room. I smiled. Maybe life would finally get back to what it used to be, or at least close.

I shut my door and went to eat dinner with my family.

**I hope you enjoyed this one! Like I said, I wasn't planning on writing this chapter, so I apologize if it was short, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. I'm sorry to say, but I think there's only one more chapter for each branch until this story is over. I think you'll all like one conclusion or the other, I decided on each of them hoping you would all like at least one!**

**Please review and let me know what you think. Also, let me know any ideas for my next story.**

**As promised, a description of me: I'm 6' 2", so tall, brown hair, green eyes. I'm mostly a loner with very few friends, I like snowboarding, wakeboarding, and swimming. I'm very pessimistic and don't think well of myself or any situation. Let me know who should be the godly parent of my semblance in the story, and what few things should change to fit the parent.**

**I hope all of you enjoyed, and I hope to see you in the next one!**


	17. Chapter 17

**We stopped for food and there's wifi! Hello! I hope you enjoy this!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**Hello everyone, I'm back again! A quick note, if you guys want me to, I might write an epilogue to these branches. If you think you would like that, let me know. Also, like I said last chapter, I may put a semblance of myself in my next story, so go that read description in the last one and let me know.**

**I'm going to try to make this chapter a long one since it's the last one, so I hope you enjoy!**

**Chapter 17 Branch 1**

Percy's POV

The school year had been brutal.

My senior year at Goode had just ended and I was never so happy to be done with a year of school.

Everything had been mostly the same as it always was, but the classes were harder this year and my depression came back a several times. One time in particular, it had been really bad. I'd been going through a really bad week, most of my classes were loading homework on me that I was under pressure to get finished to pass the classes, Nico hadn't come for several weeks so I hadn't had anyone to talk to. My mom said she was there for me, but she didn't understand as well as Nico and I couldn't go talk to her about it. I was home alone while Paul was still at work correcting some papers, and my mom had gone to get some groceries for the week and I was feeling useless. It got so bad that time that I had a knife to my wrist before I caught myself. I'd promised my friends and myself that I wouldn't hurt myself again, so I forced myself to put the knife down and go lay on my bed where I couldn't hurt myself.

After that, my depression had lifted considerably, although it was still there some of the time. The day to go to Camp had finally come, and I was really excited to get back to my favorite place.

By some miracle I had convinced Nico to come back to camp. He told me he wouldn't stay, but at least he would be there for a while. Despite the fact that I had recovered from my depression almost entirely I doubted people would treat me normally again so quickly.

It was Thursday so there would be a game of capture the flag tomorrow, and the first game of the year was one of the more intense games each year. Maybe helping the winning team would get people to be around me a bit more. It was a small hope, but it was all I had.

I hugged my mom and walked outside and through the streets of Manhattan. I made my way through the crowds and towards the same alley where I had come last fall. I was going to meet Blackjack to go back to camp and that was the most inconspicuous place around.

I finally got to the alley after about forty minutes of wading through people and went towards where Blackjack should be waiting. I got there and saw he wasn't here yet, but it didn't worry me. He was probably waiting in the clouds for me to call.

I whistled and saw the black silhouette of the pegasus coming towards me. I looked back to where I'd come from and saw a homeless man next to the dumpster, seemingly asleep. I looked at him for a few more seconds a realized he was the same man I'd seen last fall. I kept looking at him, expecting him to morph into some monster and attack me, but he just stayed there, eyes closed.

I looked back towards Blackjack and watched him land near me. I walked over to him, "How have you been Blackjack?"

_Bored boss, nothing happens during the winter. Do you have any sugar cubes?_

I wasn't in the mood to argue with him that sugar was bad for him so I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a small handful of them.

After he ate them he shook his head for a second before looking at me again

_Camp?_

"Yeah, take me to camp." I said as I climbed onto his back.

Before we took off I looked back at the homeless man who was no longer asleep. He was just looking at me, and he wasn't acting scared or confused. A knowing smile slowly appeared on his face, and I saw his stormy grey eyes. We took off, but I could've sworn that I saw a necklace around his neck showing next to his shirt like the ones we wore, but we took off too quickly to see it very well.

The flight lasted for a little while, and was really uneventful other than scaring a small flock of birds that we flew past.

I saw Camp come into view as we dropped down out of the clouds and couldn't help but smile. I'd gone through so much here, I'd learned more here than I had at any school and this was where all my friends were.

We landed at the pegasus stables. I walked inside and got a brush and quickly brushed Blackjack.

Once I finished I went towards the cabins to see if Nico had kept his promise. I wandered around camp. I checked his cabin, the pavilion, and the arena, but I couldn't find him. I asked a few people, but they said they hadn't seen him. I walked around for a while longer, then went into the forest. I looked around everywhere that I thought he would be, but couldn't find him. I decided to take a break and went to the beach. I planned on going for a swim to relax and enjoy the feeling of being back, but I saw Nico sitting on the beach alone. I wasn't sure why he was there, but I walked over to him.

"This is an odd place to be sitting alone." I said as I sat beside him in the sand.

He didn't reply to me for a couple seconds, staring out at the waves crashing down in the ocean. "How've you been Percy?"

"School, I think that's an emotion in itself."

He smirked at that, but it didn't last very long.

"What about you?" I continued.

"Just… Alone. After the Giant War everything's been off. It just feels different to be alone now, it used to be solitude, peace, a place to think. Now, whenever I'm alone I can't stop wishing that I was with Bianca or Hazel or another person. Something about that war changed my perception of being alone."

"That's deep, but being deep should be normal for you, seeing how you spend so much time in the Underworld."

He looked over at me with a blank expression, "Do you have to keep making jokes? I'm being serious Percy."

"I know, I'm just trying to cheer you up. I can't let my friend sit here and ponder life, we're still teenagers. You're not allowed to ponder life until you're at least 30."

He smirked a little bit again, but looked back out at the sea.

"Come on, I need to unpack my stuff in my cabin and dinner is soon."

He nodded and stood up, walking next to me back into camp.

Unpacking had gone very quickly, seeing how I never brought very much with me to camp, and we went to dinner with the rest of the camp. We got the welcome speech from Chiron for a new year of camp. He welcomed the new campers and quickly told about everything that would happen this year. He also announced the game of capture the flag for tomorrow night. That got a lot of cheers.

After dinner had finished, everyone went to the campfire, I even got Nico to go even though he was silent for the whole thing. Everyone sang to the songs that the Apollo cabin played for us, joked around, and generally had a good time.

Eventually it was over and everyone headed back to their cabins to get their bunks before the new kids tried to take them and that camp quickly got silent. I told Nico I would see him tomorrow and went back to my cabin.

Once I got there, I opened up my backpack and pulled out the one thing I hadn't unpacked earlier: my journal.

Ever since I had nearly cut myself I'd made it a habit to read the journal every once in a while. There were times when I read it once a week, then there were times a read it once or twice a day. I left it in my backpack until now to make sure that no one would come in and find it. There weren't many secrets I had, but this journal was personal.

I read through all the notes that were written in it to the light of the moon and the slightly fluorescent slat-water fountain in the corner. Once I'd finished, I put it into the drawer in my nightstand.

I changed out of my clothes from the day and laid in bed. I rested my head on the familiar pillow of my bed at camp and slowly drifted off to sleep.

-Not the end! -

I woke up the next day with light from the early morning pouring in the windows onto my face. I knew Apollo probably assumed that making sure it was a really bright day for the first day of camp was a blessing, but this early?

I got up and went to get showered and changed into my new clothes for the day. I was back on my regular schedule this year, so I would have to make sure I was on time for what I needed to do. I heard the horn signaling breakfast, so I made sure I had Riptide in my pocket and stepped out the door.

I saw everyone else streaming out of their cabins, and followed them towards the pavilion. Once I got there we said the customary "To the gods!" and sacrificed a portion of our food. I went back to my table and sat down alone. Nico was now sitting at his the Hades table, so I would be eating alone again.

The meal went by quickly, and very boring, and we all separated for our activities for the day. I was starting in the arena with the Hades cabin (so Nico) and the Athena cabin.

I made my way for the arena and found Nico on the way there. We started talking about what had happened over the year since camp ended, since his visits to my family were usually short.

He told me he had been all over the US as well as a couple of countries in Europe and one accidental trip to Alaska.

I told him about my school year, although it was really boring compared to what he had done over the year. Nico was a good listener because he was so quiet, so he never interrupted as I told him about it.

We finally reached the arena to find the Athena cabin already practicing. I saw Annabeth watching the rest of her cabin, occasionally giving tips to the newer kids, a few of which were obviously wielding a weapon for the first time, and one nearly skewered Malcolm while he was practicing a move he was just shown.

Annabeth looked over at us and I smiled at her. I didn't hold anything against her anymore, and to be honest, I'd missed her company. She smiled back and continued practicing.

Nico and I went over to the usual area where we sparred and got our weapons out.

Neither of us had been able to train lately so we had a lot of pent up energy, being the ADHD demigods we are. Once we started we both fought mercilessly, hacking, slashing, and stabbing at each other. Neither of us landed a blow on the other, but we got close a couple of times.

The time in the arena seemed to go by very quickly and was over sooner that I would have hoped. We cleaned up and I went for pegasus riding while Nico went to archery.

Training had gone very slowly after the arena. Everyone was excited for capture the flag and could hardly keep from bouncing on their feet waiting for training to be over.

When it finally came to the time to get ready for capture the flag, everyone could hardly wait. I went back to my cabin to get my armor and the watch-shield Tyson had made me and went towards the edge of the woods where everyone met up before capture the flag.

Once I got there, I looked around and found out what teams the cabins had split into.

Blue was being led by Athena (as usual), and had Poseidon, Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus Nemesis, and Iris. Red was led by Ares (also as usual), and had Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter, Dionysus, Hecate, and Morpheus (I apologize if I missed any).

The teams quickly split up and went into the woods. Our team went to the half of the woods with Zeus's Fist. Once we got there, we placed our flag at the top.

We all gathered around at the base of the Fist with Annabeth giving each cabin orders.

"Half of Athena cabin will be on defense, along with Hephaestus, half of Hermes and Iris, the other Half of Athena will be on offense with Poseidon, Hades, Nemesis, and the other half of Hermes."

Everyone muttered consent and we moved to where we would be. I waited at the border by the creek with Nico and the three Nemesis kids. We waited until the horn signaled the start then jumped out from behind the foliage we were hiding next to and rushed forwards, immediately met by four Ares kids.

Nico and I held our own pretty easily, and the Nemesis kids, even though they aren't big, were good fighters. If one of them got hit they immediately attacked back even more intensely. Once we had subdued the four of them, we ran forwards deeper into their territory. We heard bronze clashing against bronze around the forest, battle cries, and arrows being shot.

A couple arrows went past us, but we weren't hit. We dodged our way through some more Ares kids, and ducked some arrows from the Apollo guards.

We found the red flag with a boar in it in the center of a clearing. We ran to it, fighting against several more Ares campers while being shot at by the two Apollo campers guarding the flag, although they were hesitant because of their allies fighting us.

I hit one of them in the helmet with the flat side of my sword and he stumbled to the side, then I started helping a Nemesis camper. Once we had them backed off enough I quickly signaled the kids from Nemesis to grab the flag.

The one I had helped got it and started running with his siblings close behind. I followed with Nico, but when we got nearly halfway to the creek, I stopped and turned around. Nico quickly followed suit, and we started fighting the Ares campers that had been fighting us by the flag to give the campers from Nemesis time to reach the creek.

I fought as hard as I could against the two who were fighting me, and when I saw Nico he looked like a demon with a sword, quickly changing between which camper he was fighting, swinging his sword quickly between the two of them, striking, slashing, parrying, then stabbing. After about thirty seconds of fighting, I hit one of them in the helmet and kicked the other back and I started to run again. I saw Nico do the same and we ran for about 100 feet before we heard the horn that signaled the end of the game. I stopped and Nico got a little ways ahead of me, before he stopped panting from the exertion.

I straightened up and stopped panting quite so much, but before I could say anything to Nico I felt something pierce deep in my side through a chink in my armor.

I collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. I heard Nico yell "Percy!" before I blacked out.

I woke up and immediately felt water rushing around my lower body. I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn't move yet. I could feel something pressing down on my chest, as if something was stuck on top of me while I was unconscious.

I waited for a few minutes then tried to open my eyes again. This time, they slowly opened and I immediately saw a wave of blonde next to my head, then I slowly became aware of arms wrapped around me. I tried to say something but it only came out as an unintelligible sound. The head next to me suddenly moved and I could see Annabeth's face. I could see where the tears had been running down her face.

I finally could see where I was. I was laying in the stream in the woods, where they must've taken me while I was knocked out, the campers were all standing watching to see if I was ok, and Nico was a couple feet away, sitting and watching.

After about a half a second of looking at me, Annabeth suddenly said "Percy!" and kissed me. I lasted for only a second, then she pulled away from me and hugged me tightly. "Don't ever scare me like that again." She said to me.

She was squeezing me too tight to say anything, so I could only try to nod a little.

She looked at my face again and said to me, "You're not getting away from me that easily seaweed brain. If there's any way, could you give me a second chance?"

My voice was still failing me, so I could only smile and give her a small nod, and with that, she kissed me again.

**The End! Yay and stuff for Percabeth! But please read this, it is important!**

**Alright guys, this is the end of Branch 1 of this story, and I had a lot of fun writing it, but remember, Branch 2 isn't over yet, so keep reading if you're interested in that, but I have a few questions.**

**First of all, should I write an Epilogue for this story? I'd like to write on if you guys want, but if not I don't want to waste my and your time.**

**Second, what should I do for my next story? I'm not very good at coming up with ideas, although I can expound on ones others give me, so what should I write? I'll consider just about anything you guys ask for, so Romance, Depressing topics, AU (maybe), specific ships you guys have, whatever. Just give the idea and a brief summary for me to build on.**

**Third, and this a re-asking of this one, I'm considering putting a semblance of myself as an OC in my next story, because I think that would be cool and I would be able to show my own emotions and thoughts better than characters I've only read about. A quick description for all of you, a little larger than the last one. I'm 6' 2", so I'm pretty tall, I'm very tan compared to most people, brown hair, green eyes with gold specks in them, I snowboard, wakeboard, and swim, I'm mostly a loner, I have very, very few friends, I'm pessimistic and think poorly of myself, I don't enjoy farming and I'm not good with plants, I don't think music taste matters but I like rap and dubstep, I'm very sarcastic around my best (and only) friend, and I'm into computers and programming. That was a lot, just trying to let you know who I am, so who would be my godly parent if I was in the story, or I had the other idea, my grandparents if I had two demigods for parents? Let me know please.**

**I think that's everything, sorry for going on so long, but I need some answers because I'm indecisive. Please Review and let me know what you thought about this story.**

**Thank you to all my fantastic readers who have supported me through my first story, and I hope I can count on all of you to read my next ones!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus**

**I just woke up and I'm adding this first paragraph to it this chapter. I saw that quite a few of you guys wanted an epilogue, so I'm gonna spoil you and post the epilogue to Branch 1 before I finish off Branch 2. Please review and let me know what you think, and once again, I really need ideas! Please let me know.**

**Hello again everyone! Granted on whether or not you see this, I'm still on my 8 hour car ride out of state, so I figured I would pre-write this. And, you guess it, this is the epilogue to From the Ashes Branch 1! I hope you guys enjoy this, because I just had the idea and figured why wait? I have plenty of time. So, my laptop and my rap for inspiration I guess. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 18 Branch 1 Epilogue!**

Annabeth's POV

_2 Years later_

I was too busy for this. Percy had asked me to go to dinner at one of the nicest restaurants on Olympus, and it was one of the few that I hadn't designed. To be fair to Percy, we hadn't had time to spend together for a few weeks now because I had been so busy designing monuments and new buildings, so I could understand why he had asked me.

He made it sound really important too, so I could hardly say no to him.

It was a very high-end Italian restaurant, and one that you dressed up to go to, so I'd had to find a nice dress to wear. After looking for about an hour, I found a dark blue dress that reached my ankles, but was just short enough that it wouldn't get under my feet while I was walking.

I'd just finished putting on my silver earrings when I heard a knock at the door of the apartment I lived in while I was working in Olympus.

I knew it was Percy, so I quickly looked myself over in the mirror to make sure I looked ok and walked to the door.

I opened the door to see a rare sight: Percy dressed up in a nice suit. It was a dark black suit, and with it he was wearing a collared white shirt, black shoes, and a sea-green tie that matched his eyes. He'd also somehow found a way to brush his raven-black hair so it was neat.

He smiled at me then stepped to the side to allow me out the door and gave an over-exaggerated gesture with his arm waving me forwards while he grinned at me.

"Seaweed brain, you don't have to try to act like a gentleman for me."

"I don't have to, but you deserve it. Embarrassing or not, I'm going to treat you like the lady you are for the night." He said.

I knew there was no point in arguing, so I just rolled my eyes and walked out the door.

As if to annoy me, he stuck out his arm.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head gently at him, but I hooked my arm through his and we started walking through Olympus towards wherever the restaurant was.

We talked like we always did though as we were walking, I told him about everything that was going on as we walked, although I did what I could to avoid the technical bit of architecture or I knew his eyes would glaze over, and in turn, he told me about what he had been doing. As of now, he was still living in New York so he would be close enough to help out at Camp Half-Blood if he was needed, and he had a job teaching children to swim at a rec center that was in the area.

I asked him a few questions about it, like he liked it and how the children did, and he told me that he enjoyed that job and the children usually did very well.

"So do the kids like you as a teacher?" I asked him.

"Umm, yeah, I think so." He replied.

"You think so?"

He looked like he was trying not to sound like he was bragging and obviously wanted to avoid talking about it for some reason, "Several of them have told me they would miss me, and a couple actually gave me things to remember them."

"Percy, that's adorable," I told him, "How come you haven't told me about it before?"

"Well, I don't like to sound like I'm bragging and you've been busy for the last three weeks."

"Has it really been three weeks?" I asked him. There was no way it had actually been three weeks.

"Yeah, you've always been busy supervising a project or designing others."

I felt really bad that I'd ignored Percy so much for the last while, but I honestly hadn't realized that it had been so long.

I was about to say something when Percy said "There's the restaurant." While pointing at a specific building.

We walked in the stood near the front as we waited for a few minutes. Soon a waiter came and Percy told him "We have a reservation for two. The name is Percy."

He looked in the book and read the few notes and the time next to it.

He smiled and looked at us and said "Will you follow me please?"

He started walking back through the restaurant and past most of the tables and followed him to a door. He pulled it open a gestured for us to go first. Percy let me go ahead of him, so I started my way up the stairs with Percy and the waiter following.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I couldn't help a short gasp escaping my lips. We were on top of the restaurant, on the edge of Olympus. I walked the edge and looked out and saw the stars. When I looked down I could see New York and the lights of business and cars that were always there in New York.

I turned around back to Percy and asked "How did you manage this?"

He smiled at me and said "Being the twice-savior of Olympus tends to get you some benefits, and a few extra drachmas didn't hurt."

I hugged him tight for a few seconds and let go smiling at him.

We walked over to the table and he pulled out my chair for me. I sighed and shook my head again, "You're going to keep this up all night aren't you?" Even though on the inside I was enjoying this.

He smiled and said "Of course."

I sat down and he went around the table and sat at his place. The waiter took our orders and left us with our glasses of water and each other's company. We made small talk, talking about anything we could to pass the time until the waiter finally returned with our food.

We didn't talk much during the meal, the food was too good to leave for very long at a time. Once we had finished that, the waiter brought some small dessert and we ate that, a little more slowly now that we'd eaten our dinner. Percy told me more about what had been going on. He told me details about Sally and Paul's wedding which I hadn't been able to make it to because of a meeting with Apollo about his temple that I was designing at the time, and about how Grover's adventures were going.

Finally we finished eating and the waiter took the dishes, then looked at Percy and asked him, "Are you ready for your last order sir?"

He thought for a moment, then replied "Yes, I am."

The waiter nodded walked back down the staircase.

"What last order? I don't remember anything else." I told him.

He smiled back at me and said "The last part of the night. I'm glad you've enjoyed everything so far and I hope my last surprise will be the best."

I looked at him confused but the waiter returned with a small tray. It was one a stereotypical silver platter, with a round cover over it also made of silver.

"I'll leave you now, and sir, the meal is on the house. I wish you good luck, and enjoy the rest of your night." He said with a smile.

Percy thanked him and the waiter walked back down the stairs, so all that was on the rooftop was Percy, the silver platter, and me.

I was about to ask what the waiter meant when Percy stood up. He brushed his suit and straightened it out before looking over at me.

"Annabeth, I organized tonight because it's very special to me. Today is the day when we got back together two years ago, and you told me you wouldn't me go again. I've been planning this for a long time now, and I prayed you would agree to coming with me today. You've made the last two years of my life the greatest I've had, and you never went back on you promise to never let me go. I want to make the same promise, to never let you go. Annabeth, I never want you to leave and I want to prove it to you." He picked up the cover on the tray partially so I couldn't see what was in it and closed it again after he got something out of it. "Annabeth." He said as he manipulated something behind his back. He took my left hand and got down on one knee as he pulled out an open box from behind him. "Will you marry me?"

I was shocked, and almost immediately after, a surge of happiness went through me.

"Yes!' I said as I pulled him to his feet and hugged him tight.

I forced him to stay for a few seconds, holding him tight. I could feel the tears running down my cheeks, but I didn't care.

He pulled away and took my hand and slid a ring onto my finger. It was beautiful, it was a silver band that had a diamond where it traditionally was, and it was surrounded by several small gems of sea green topaz.

I pulled him into me and kissed him for a long time before pulling him into a hug again and said quietly into his ear again, "Yes seaweed brain, I will marry you."

**The End!**

**Gah! Writing emotions in a girl's perspective is obviously not my thing. In my defense, I am a 17 year old guy, soooo… yeah. But, I hope you guys enjoyed this. Please review and let me know what you thought of this! It was definitely interesting to write From the Ashes, and I hope you all enjoyed. Thank you to all my awesome readers! I hope to see you guys in my next stories!**

**You've all been great, thank you for your support from the beginning to the end, I couldn't have done it without you.**

**-StrydeVex**


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